Fisher F2 depth indicator question

[Bill_Ace_350]

I'm still not convinced. The other guy brings up some pretty good points. The built in capability of the depth indicator to assist in sorting out trash from the good stuff would he a HUGE selling point if it were in fact legitimate. Not saying it isn't, but does seem very, very odd it isn't used as a selling point... Any electronics experts want to jump in?

 

[Jay_781]

I think we all need to realize that not every detector behaves the same way even if its the same model..

 

[Silversmith45]

Well after going hunting like 4 or 5 times I decided to upgrade and got a slightly used F2 for $130 and going over the manual online its a major upgrade from my Quicksilver.

No offense but I'd rather have the Quicksilver. I have both.

 

[CoiltoSoil]

No offense but I'd rather have the Quicksilver. I have both.

I never used an F2 but I have owned 3 of the CZ7 series and can say I'd much rather have a CZ quick silver. They were super deep, fast, and so good they still make them in form of the CZ21 and CZ3d. Its a $1000 machine vs. a $200.

 

[gianetics]

digger, savage, i value both of your inputs. i just got a f2 and love it. my machine might be different from both diggers and savages so i will give both credibility. the crappy part about anonymous forums is that people are willing to say things to each other that they would never say to someones face. people disagree, but we all agree that we find cool stuff with the f2 (and i guess with other machines). lets simmer down and let cooler heads prevail. Remember you should speak to others, even on a forum as you would want to be spoken to.

 

[njemt]

Thanks to everyone for their input and it seems that I'm just going to have to play with it and see what happens. I still new so I dig pretty much everything anyway. So I think I'll have to learn as to how it works with the tones, digital readout and the prize and how they correspond to each other. I didn't expect the thread to get as "spirited" as did but it is what it is. Thanks again to all.

 

[pine3874]

Thanks to everyone for their input and it seems that I'm just going to have to play with it and see what happens. I still new so I dig pretty much everything anyway. So I think I'll have to learn as to how it works with the tones, digital readout and the prize and how they correspond to each other. I didn't expect the thread to get as "spirited" as did but it is what it is. Thanks again to all.

Very smart thinking!! That is the only way you are going to learn what works for you.

The rest of this post is directed at Digger 27.

I don't believe that the depth meter has any influence in determining if a target is trash or not on the F2 or on any other detector for that matter. Being that you are now using the F70 all of the time, I believe you may have been referring to the confidence meter on the F70 rather than the depth meter on the F2. On the F70, bouncing VID numbers and a jumping confidence meter would indicate trash. I also say this because in the 100's or 1000's of your posts about the F2, I don't remember you ever mentioning the correlation between the depth meter and bouncy VID numbers in determining if a taget is trash or not until now. Here is a link to one of your latest posts about the F2 and there is no mention at all about the depth meter. http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=164265 If I am wrong, please correct me. Just for your information, the F2 was my first detector and I loved it and found my most valuable find to date after just using it 2 weeks. Sold the 18K solid gold watch on Ebay for $2800.

 

[popatop]

I have an F2 and have tested Diggers theory on the jumpy VDI and the unstable depth meter many times and it certainly has worked for me. Getting that coil centered over the target is a must though.

I would also venture to guess that Digger has more actual hunting time on his machine then the people that build the F2 and probably understands it better as well so therefore your not going to see this info in the manual. of course.

 

[DIGGER27]

Very smart thinking!! That is the only way you are going to learn what works for you.

The rest of this post is directed at Digger 27.

I don't believe that the depth meter has any influence in determining if a target is trash or not on the F2 or on any other detector for that matter. Being that you are now using the F70 all of the time, I believe you may have been referring to the confidence meter on the F70 rather than the depth meter on the F2. On the F70, bouncing VID numbers and a jumping confidence meter would indicate trash. I also say this because in the 100's or 1000's of your posts about the F2, I don't remember you ever mentioning the correlation between the depth meter and bouncy VID numbers in determining if a taget is trash or not until now. Here is a link to one of your latest posts about the F2 and there is no mention at all about the depth meter. http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=164265 If I am wrong, please correct me. Just for your information, the F2 was my first detector and I loved it and found my most valuable find to date after just using it 2 weeks. Sold the 18K solid gold watch on Ebay for $2800.

No, I didn't mention it in this post, but there are others where I have, and in plenty of PMs to members that have contacted me about using theirs in the past.
Don't ask me why this seems to work for me, why jumpy depth bars are also another indicator of trash targets, (and I still dug a lot of trash with jumpy depth bars to either make sure or at sites where I was digging everything because of masking), or why good targets for me the depth bars never jumped.
No idea if Fisher knows about this or not, but Garrett won't state anywhere about how I manage to get 5-6 and 7" in depth out of mine, nor does Tesoro ever put down in any manual or on their website how it is much more accurate to go past the fade out point and then turn back down then just to turn the discs knobs up to the fade out point either.
The F70 and the confidence meter is a totally different ball game, but at this point I rarely ever look at that.
Who knows, that could be similar and tell me more than Fisher thinks or knows it could also, but I need way more experience to even come close to seeing any effect to have an opinion on that.

I didn't think this depth bar thing would cause such a stink, it is just something I noticed over time and eventually tied its behavior to the different types of targets I was swinging over.
More important to me has always been the ability to get those VDI numbers stable and not jump more than 2 when determining trash than those depth bars ever were.
But I can categorically state that every time I dug a target that had both jumpy VDI numbers AND jumpy depth bars it was trash every time...every blasted time, and I dug more than enough targets like that in my time to form this opinion and nobody can prove anything different to me no matter how much they try.

 

[NectarDetector]

im going with DIGGER27.

You do that... leaves more for me!!! I said my peace, I know it's a fact and that's that. You agree with whatever you want to... but it's still a fact that the depth meter does ONE thing.

Tells you the depth of the target from the center of the coil....that's it!

Nuff said... BTW, I get PMs too, telling me that they know I am correct, because they are free thinkers who don't have to brown nose to find approval...

Anyway, I said what I said to help new members find the correct information...as they say you can lead a horse to water.,..


Wonder why they called it a depth meter and not a junk meter? Hmmm...

Now I gonna 10-4 ya, and that means I am done talking about it because there is nothing else to discuss...

"go with" whoever ya want to, As my grandma always said "Know what ya know, and let the rest go!"

 

[DIGGER27]

You do that... leaves more for me!!! I said my peace, I know it's a fact and that's that. You agree with whatever you want to... but it's still a fact that the depth meter does ONE thing.

Tells you the depth of the target from the center of the coil....that's it!

Nuff said... BTW, I get PMs too, telling me that they know I am correct, because they are free thinkers who don't have to brown nose to find approval...

Anyway, I said what I said to help new members find the correct information...as they say you can lead a horse to water.,..


Wonder why they called it a depth meter and not a junk meter? Hmmm...

Now I gonna 10-4 ya, and that means I am done talking about it because there is nothing else to discuss...

"go with" whoever ya want to, As my grandma always said "Know what ya know, and let the rest go!"

Bout time so thanks!

Evidently we have 2 totally different experiences, opinions and observations about hunting with the F2.
That's fine.
You hunt your way and I will hunt mine when I use it and I hope we both find enough to make us happy in our own way.

 

[Captain Silver]

The Omega has signal strength bars instead of a depth indicator. When I'm over a bottlecap and not a clad quarter, the signal bars will usually jump around...nothing is mentioned in the manual about this. I've also noticed they tend to bounce when over shallow canslaw and other trash, and stay steady when over clad...or a gold ring. Now on the deep targets...the above doesn't apply

 

[H2O ADDICTION]

I probably miss a few targets here and there but no worries - I already find what the others have left behind lol! I've had my F2 for less than 3 months - I get maybe 5-6 hours a week on it sometimes, and in my mind I have some pretty sweet finds for a newb. I have found over 90 dollars in clad, a silver ring, two fake gold rings, a gold "grill" top & bottom, gold earring, 5 silver coins and a few sterling spoons, wheat pennies, tools, some good poundage in brass,copper & lead (for scrap) and too much cool stuff and relics to even list

Even though Digger27 has taught me well - I tend to err on the side of caution, conservatism, whatever you wanna call it and I take it a little further. For instance his "general" rule that he usually does not dig numbers that jump more than two... Well OK "usually" lol, but you have to add ALL the factors together, VDI, sound of the beep, pinpointing to determine size/shape etc. I swing at it from a few angles and process that info in as well. I take into consideration soil conditions and more. So I will dig jumpy numbers and at times wildly jumpy numbers depending on "the other" factors, and it has paid off with coin spills, even gold.

Usually it is easy to determine a coin spill though since the F2 hits so hard on coins and with the sniper coil it separates targets pretty darn good. As far as the depth "gauge" to the right - I look at it if it jumps but really don't pay much attention to it - My old worn out head can only process so much info at once haha. Since it is a "scale" with no real accuracy I barely look at it. I do use the pinpoint function and THAT gives me a fairly accurate depth and awesome pinpointing. For me sound is the biggest factor - All the other tidbits just help me dig less trash - at least we hope lol!

We all know that distinct double beep both the old and new pulltabs can make - So can rings... Sounds almost exactly the same just more crisp, VDI can be anywhere and may be jumpy or solid - I dig a lot but I really don't dig alot of trash like I did before my F2...Am I missing a lot? Maybe... Am I finding enough to pay for my gas - Yes and then some. Has DIGGER27 shortened my learning curve and helped me? Why yes - Immensely.

Bottom line is do what works for you - But my way is best hahaha! This is probably how most of us feel right? The internet is just like a metal detector in a way - Each of us will read the info fed to us differently and we will process that information differently as well - Even though we are being fed the same info. Most of us tend to walk to the beat of a different drummer, especially as we mature, so..... JUST DIG!

Here are a few pics of some of my recent finds with the F2, digging MY way - This is just a fraction of it! Enjoy

 

[DIGGER27]

Good points....Great finds!

I never said everyone or anyone should do it exactly the way I do, all I do is post what works for me and if people want to try whatever I do that is great...but I always expected whoever did these things to take them and run with it, discard them completely or tweak them to do it in their own personal way.
All I ever wanted to do is to shorten the learning curve as much as I could so others could get to finding the good stuff in a much faster time frame than I did by spinning my wheels so much at the beginning.
Why I can do a few things relatively easily, like find the exact center of the coil and get good targets to 2 numbers or less almost instantly probably has to do with the shear number of hours I have spent with mine.
I had no clue about any of this stuff for a long time.
I sure couldn't do it like this when I started, I had numbers jumping all over the place so I really did dig it all in those days just to be sure.
Nothing I do or got good at happened instantly or quickly, on the contrary it took a huge amount of hours to get to the level I am at with this stuff.
All the rules I have made for myself, all the techniques and observations I use were all in an effort to enable me to dig less trash and find a higher volume of the good stuff and it does, but it didn't start out this way.
Last year 2 guys from my MD club had just bought F2's, one was a complete newbie one had years experience swinging Tesoros, and after our meeting we all went hunting together where I showed them a few things.
Neither one could get those numbers to calm down in the very trashy picnic area we were hunting, even over good targets.
I took both of their machines and in less than a second with just a few short swipes I could do it easily and I guessed each target correctly, also, the good and the bad.
I gave them back their machines and they tried to do it exactly the way I just showed them but they still couldn't come close to my speed no matter how much they tried.
I remembered how I was when I first got mine and just told them both that it will come.
Like in most things practice makes perfect, and most things that seem effortless to me now I know took several hundred hours of swing time to get comfortable with...and I am still learning new things or always try to.
All that I do is my own little personal way, everyone should always strive to find theirs.
What works for me has worked for others, for some it probably didn't make sense or work for them at all.

Just discover, develop and do what you want to do the way you want to do it in any fashion that makes you happy.
If you want to try doing a few things my way and they work, great, if they don't or you find another better way to decipher and understand your detector's language also great.
This is supposed to be a fun hobby, not a life and death struggle, so figure out what will give you the most pleasure and the easiest way to do all of these things in your world and it appears that you have done exactly that.

 

[njemt]

Ok I went out today with my new F2 and I kept getting multiple readings in the + (silver dollar/half dollar) range and some that read coin readings and found nothing of value. I did reset the unit and nothing changed. Any ideas?

 

[H2O ADDICTION]

Ok I went out today with my new F2 and I kept getting multiple readings in the + (silver dollar/half dollar) range and some that read coin readings and found nothing of value. I did reset the unit and nothing changed. Any ideas?

From your profile info it looks as if you have SOME experience with metal detectors... I guess the best advice is to be detecting in an area that has recoverable coins in the first place. I have places I've hunted where I thought for sure I was gonna find some old coins... and found a few zinc pennies in a days hunt. Other times I've found 10 bucks or more in clad at heavily hunted parks in just a few hours, with a few wheat pennies mixed in - Go figure?

Maybe where you've been detecting has been hit by someone already? Most of the stuff I dig is only 0-4 inches deep with the F2 - Occasionally I'll hit a coin at 5 inches - I use the 4 inch sniper coil almost exclusively - It's not very deep in my soil type on coins but if you are infact over a detectable coin you can usually tell. The machine does not lie, IF it has enough info to tell the truth haha! It IS a good little machine for the money and it DOES find some good stuff once you learn it. It hits coins that many others can miss. But again, one thing is certain - You MUST be searching where coins have been lost (and not already found) in order to find them

 

[TwistedT]

Ok I went out today with my new F2 and I kept getting multiple readings in the + (silver dollar/half dollar) range and some that read coin readings and found nothing of value. I did reset the unit and nothing changed. Any ideas?

Those + readings can mean a big piece of iron in the ground. could be 8-9-10 inches down.
If it is metal the F2 will find it - if you have iron disc out, you would never know it was there.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Fine if you have to revert to name calling, the rest of what you say is meaningless.


Did you have something to worthwhile to add or did you just want to ride his his coat tails all the way to failure?

You can either learn, or keep doing what you've been taught, even if it's incorrect with no factual data to support it.

I wonder why NO sponsors will corroborate this theory? Because they too know it's BS...but they aren't going to say that to protect their image, but you won't hear any of them repeat this BS jumpy depth bar = junk 100% of the time...

You can learn all kinds of ways, one of which is the wrong way...so be it, you don't know any better, and that was my point about him spreading misinformation.

Point me to one source other than digger that states a jumpy depth bar means trash. I'll wait, as I have been... That logic makes entirely no sense, and has no data to back it up other than "it works for me"

You have fun digging trash too, and keep following his advice so the rest of us can come behind you and dig those targets that you are so sure is trash...

The rest of us will come through and find what you've missed!

Now that I think of it Digger, heck yeah keep telling people that, it leaves more good stuff for the rest of us.

Like I said, you can learn all kinds of ways, one of which is the wrong way.

You called me an idiot, yet I tried to educate you and you refuse to listen. Who's the idiot now? I've proven his theories wrong time and again in the field, I know what I am talking about.

Think I'll shoot some video to prove my points, but you'd probably deny the results anyway!!!

Oh, and it isn't hard to master a friggin beginner detector my friend, if it is, maybe you're the idiot?

Nothing to add changed my mine not worth my trouble...but if your ever in Alabama look me up...

 

[NectarDetector]

Nothing to add changed my mine not worth my trouble...but if your ever in Alabama look me up...

For what? To make you apologize for disrespecting me with name calling? Other than that man, kick dirt.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

For what? To make you apologize for disrespecting me with name calling? Other than that man, kick dirt.